Green is traditionally symbolic of nature, life, greed, money or wealth, and envy (such as the expression green with envy).
"Involuntarily I glanced seaward— and distinguished nothing except a single green light, minute and far away, that might have been the end of a dock."
~The green light symbolizes Gatby's envy towards Tom. Gatsby longs for Daisy so he reaches for the green light because it comes from where her house is. Since Tom is Daisy's man, Gatsby is "green with envy" in a sense that he wishes he were Daisy's man instead.
"Sitting down behind many layers of glass in a sort of green leather conservatory, we started to town."
~The green leather conservatory symbolizes wealth. First of all, green leather doesn't sound cheap and second of all, you'd have to be wealthy to have a conservatory.
"While we admired he brought more and the soft rich heap mounted higher — shirts with stripes and scrolls and plaids in coral and apple-green and lavender and faint orange, and monograms of Indian blue."
~In this case, apple-green represents nature and wealth. First of all, it symolizes nature because its apple-green and apples are natural. Green also represents wealth here because it describes the heap of shirts as rich and soft.
Yellow
Yellow is traditionally symbolic of happiness, betrayal, optimism, idealism, imagination, hope, summer, philosophy, dishonesty, jealousy, illness, warning and friendship.
"Yet high over the city our line of yellow windows must have contributed their share of human secrecy to the casual watcher in the darkening streets, and I was him too, looking up and wondering."
~Here, yellow symbolizes imagination. It says that the "yellow windows must have..." so Nick didn't know for sure so he was imagining. Also, it says Nick was wondering, which could also mean imagining so the yellow in the passage is also referring to imagination.
"The lamp-light, bright on his boots and dull on the autumn-leaf yellow of her hair, glinted along the paper as she turned a page with a flutter of slender muscles in her arms."
~Yellow in this particular case symbolizes hope. Daisy is hopeful in a sense that she is hopeful for a better life. She is reminded of her demanding life when she has to read the newspaper aloud. Also, the yellow is described as "autumn-leaf yellow" and autumn is hopeful in a sense because you hope the weather will stay nice and not get too bad too soon.
"On week-ends his Rolls-Royce became an omnibus, bearing parties to and from the city between nine in the morning and long past midnight, while his station wagon scampered like a brisk yellow bug to meet all trains."
~Yellow symbolizes jealousy in this passage. It is saying that Gatsby's station wagon is like a "brisk yellow bug" so it could be jealous in a sense that the station wagon is jealous of a bug of Gatsby wishes he had a bug.
Red
Red is traditionally symbolic of excitement, energy, passion, love, desire, speed, strength, power, heat, aggression, danger, fire, blood, war, and violence.
"I bought a dozen volumes on banking and credit and investment securities, and they stood on my shelf in red and gold like new money from the mint, promising to unfold the shining secrets that only Midas and Morgan and Maecenas knew."
~The red books symbolize strength. When Nick refers to Midas, Morgan, and Maecenas, you know the red symbolizes strength beause the three were all very mighty.
"Already it was deep summer on roadhouse roofs and in front of wayside garages, where new red gas-pumps sat out in pools of light, and when I reached my estate at West Egg I ran the car under its shed and sat for a while on an abandoned grass roller in the yard."
~Red symbolizes speed in this case when the red gas-pumps are brought up. Gas-pumps are used for cars and cars are also symbolic for speed.
"The sister, Catherine, was a slender, worldly girl of about thirty, with a solid, sticky bob of red hair, and a complexion powdered milky white." ~Catherine's bob of red hair is energetic. Her red hair is also described as sticky and solid, and these words coul also mean excitement or power which can combine to mean energetic.
Gatsby Color Analysis
Green
Green is traditionally symbolic of nature, life, greed, money or wealth, and envy (such as the expression green with envy)."Involuntarily I glanced seaward— and distinguished nothing except a single green light, minute and far away, that might have been the end of a dock."
~The green light symbolizes Gatby's envy towards Tom. Gatsby longs for Daisy so he reaches for the green light because it comes from where her house is. Since Tom is Daisy's man, Gatsby is "green with envy" in a sense that he wishes he were Daisy's man instead.
"Sitting down behind many layers of glass in a sort of green leather conservatory, we started to town."
~The green leather conservatory symbolizes wealth. First of all, green leather doesn't sound cheap and second of all, you'd have to be wealthy to have a conservatory.
"While we admired he brought more and the soft rich heap mounted higher — shirts with stripes and scrolls and plaids in coral and apple-green and lavender and faint orange, and monograms of Indian blue."
~In this case, apple-green represents nature and wealth. First of all, it symolizes nature because its apple-green and apples are natural. Green also represents wealth here because it describes the heap of shirts as rich and soft.
Yellow
Yellow is traditionally symbolic of happiness, betrayal, optimism, idealism, imagination, hope, summer, philosophy, dishonesty, jealousy, illness, warning and friendship."Yet high over the city our line of yellow windows must have contributed their share of human secrecy to the casual watcher in the darkening streets, and I was him too, looking up and wondering."
~Here, yellow symbolizes imagination. It says that the "yellow windows must have..." so Nick didn't know for sure so he was imagining. Also, it says Nick was wondering, which could also mean imagining so the yellow in the passage is also referring to imagination.
"The lamp-light, bright on his boots and dull on the autumn-leaf yellow of her hair, glinted along the paper as she turned a page with a flutter of slender muscles in her arms."
~Yellow in this particular case symbolizes hope. Daisy is hopeful in a sense that she is hopeful for a better life. She is reminded of her demanding life when she has to read the newspaper aloud. Also, the yellow is described as "autumn-leaf yellow" and autumn is hopeful in a sense because you hope the weather will stay nice and not get too bad too soon.
"On week-ends his Rolls-Royce became an omnibus, bearing parties to and from the city between nine in the morning and long past midnight, while his station wagon scampered like a brisk yellow bug to meet all trains."
~Yellow symbolizes jealousy in this passage. It is saying that Gatsby's station wagon is like a "brisk yellow bug" so it could be jealous in a sense that the station wagon is jealous of a bug of Gatsby wishes he had a bug.
Red
Red is traditionally symbolic of excitement, energy, passion, love, desire, speed, strength, power, heat, aggression, danger, fire, blood, war, and violence."I bought a dozen volumes on banking and credit and investment securities, and they stood on my shelf in red and gold like new money from the mint, promising to unfold the shining secrets that only Midas and Morgan and Maecenas knew."
~The red books symbolize strength. When Nick refers to Midas, Morgan, and Maecenas, you know the red symbolizes strength beause the three were all very mighty.
"Already it was deep summer on roadhouse roofs and in front of wayside garages, where new red gas-pumps sat out in pools of light, and when I reached my estate at West Egg I ran the car under its shed and sat for a while on an abandoned grass roller in the yard."
~Red symbolizes speed in this case when the red gas-pumps are brought up. Gas-pumps are used for cars and cars are also symbolic for speed.
"The sister, Catherine, was a slender, worldly girl of about thirty, with a solid, sticky bob of red hair, and a complexion powdered milky white."
~Catherine's bob of red hair is energetic. Her red hair is also described as sticky and solid, and these words coul also mean excitement or power which can combine to mean energetic.